Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said it aims to add 1 million 4G users to its customer base this year to stave of the threat of revenue stagnation amid intensifying market competition.
That would bring the nation’s No. 3 telecom operator’s total number of 4G subscribers to 5.5 million.
The company’s 4.5 million 4G users as of the end of last year made up 62 percent of its mobile service subscribers.
Far EastTone forecast the nation’s 4G penetration rate this year would climb to between 70 percent and 75 percent of mobile users from last year’s 60 percent.
Far EasTone said that profits from its 4G service helped it raise its average revenue per user from NT$896 per month in 2015 to NT$901 per month in the third quarter of last year.
“The telecom industry is reaching a plateau in terms of revenue. It is very challenging. Market competition is very fierce,” Far EastTone president Yvonne Li (李彬) said yesterday. “Growth will come from new services such as digital services, or providing information and communication technology services for corporate clients.”
Commenting on the company’s plans to end the minimum payment of NT$689 per month for unlimited 4G services on Feb. 1, Li said “market competition is an important consideration.”
Due to fierce competition, Taiwan’s five telecoms operators decided to extend flat rates for 4G services — common during the 3G era — even though unlimited-rate plans are inhibiting their profits. All players including the nation’s biggest phone company Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) are hesitant about scrapping flat rate plans.
“We believe offering tiered charges based on usage it is a long-term trend,” Li said.
Last year, Far EasTone posted NT$94.34 billion (US$2.95 billion) in revenue, down 3.03 percent from 2015’s NT$97.29 billion, according to company figures.
Net income last year dropped slightly to NT$11.41 billion, or NT$3.5 per share, compared with NT$11.49 billion, or earnings of NT$3.52 per share, in 2015.
Last year’s earnings per share beat the company’s forecast of NT$3.4 per share.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecom company, yesterday said net income dropped to NT$15.32 billion last year, from NT$15.69 billion in 2015. Earnings per share fell to NT$5.63 last year from NT$5.76 the previous year.
The company’s revenue last year inched up 0.44 percent to NT$116.65 billion from 2015’s NT$116.14 billion.
Chunghwa Telecom yesterday said net income contracted 6.5 percent annually to NT$40.03 billion last year from NT$42.81 billion in 2015, while earnings per share fell to NT$5.16 from NT$5.52.
Revenue shrank 0.8 percent year-on-year to NT$230 billion last year from 2015’s NT$231.8 billion, the firm said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last